By Mondo Times editors
Boulder Colorado USA
Posted on February 8, 2011 at 9:30am

Kids' Television Programs on The CW Contain High Amounts of Tobacco Use

-- A new report finds that Fox & The CW are among the worst offenders, it was announced on February 7, 2011:

"A new report published today in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine shows substantial amounts of tobacco images in television programming most popular with young people who are at the greatest risk of initiating smoking. The study was conducted by Legacy, a national public health organization dedicated to reducing tobacco use in the United States and aimed to quantify teen exposure to smoking on television, given the powerful role that tobacco images in media play in influencing youth to smoke.

"Among young people aged 8 to 18, 30 percent of their media use is spent on watching television," said Cheryl G. Healton, DrPH, President and CEO of Legacy. "The report shows that nearly 1 million young people were exposed to tobacco images during the analysis, whether it was in an ashtray, on a billboard, or in a character's hands."

Researchers at Legacy reviewed more than 70 episodes of top-rated/prime-time broadcast television shows popular among 12-17 year olds such as Family Guy, Gossip Girl, Heroes and The Simpsons. All of the episodes (representing an estimated 61.5 hours of programming in a single fall season) were rated either TV-PG or TV-14. TV-14 is a more stringent rating with respect to cautioning parents about the content their children see on television.

According to the report:

* The percent of episodes with any tobacco use depictions was highest on the Fox Television Network (44 percent) followed closely by CW Television Network (41 percent).

* Forty (40) percent of television episodes reviewed contained at least one depiction of tobacco use; of these depictions, 89 percent were of cigarettes.

* Among episodes rated TV-PG, 50 percent showed one or more incidents of cigarette use, in contrast to 26 percent of TV-14 episodes, the more stringent rating.

A higher proportion of tobacco use was found among programs rated TV-PG as compared with those rated TV-14, indicating that exposure to tobacco depictions may skew toward youth of younger ages, resulting in earlier exposure to this behavior. This may have an impact on teens' decisions to smoke.

Past research confirms a relationship between smoking in television and young people starting to smoke, with the risk for smoking initiation increasing markedly with more hours of television viewing(3). Additionally, smoking images in movies leads to an estimated 180,000 new young smokers each year, prompting public health advocates to ponder (or consider) the impact that smoking on television might have on youth."

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